1. Field
The embodiments described below relate generally to the access of data associated with component members.
2. Discussion
Modern industrial systems often rely to some extent on computer-based automation and monitoring. In some examples of monitoring and automation, data arising from the operation of a manufacturing plant is acquired, analyzed and responded to if necessary. The data may arise from independent sources, with each source configured to provide substantially “raw” or “native” information at pre-defined intervals in real or near real-time. The information may consist of numerical values produced by gauges and/or monitors (e.g., speed, temperature, or pressure). Data of this type is often referred to as “point” data.
Examples of systems that may acquire, store and distribute data include industrial automation systems, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, general data acquisition systems, and plant data historians. Many of these conventional systems associate point data with “tags”. These tags may be accessed by other systems, applications and/or users. A tag may also include “non-point” data that provides context to its related point data. Non-point data may include descriptive information characterizing the point data, as well as other information such as limits, ranges, etc.
The above-mentioned commonly-assigned patent application and U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,590 describe systems to use a class-based object and view model to collect and display data received from multiple heterogeneous sources. These systems encapsulate the received data as objects, or components. As such, data associated with an aspect of an industrial system may be represented within a component, along with other data associated with the same aspect. The use of components may provide reusability, consistency, inheritance and other benefits known to those familiar with object-oriented techniques.
It is desired, however, to increase the efficiency by which data associated with component members is accessed. It is also desired to provide satisfactory interoperation between a class-based component and view model and a system that uses tags to associate point data with related non-point data.